Thanks for your response. I will give some fertilizer.

It looks pretty good, actually. They LOVE acidic soil and water, and sadly (for them) our soil is alkaline and our tap water is too. I agree about maybe giving it a little fertilizer, but I'd strongly suggest getting one that also acidifies soil (like Mir-acid from Miracle-Gro, but there are others of course) to keep the soil nice and acidic. It looks pretty good overall though. Let us know what you do and how it works out. Happy gardening!

I would suggest keeping it in the sunlight until the temps hit 90F, and then start to arrange afternoon shade.

Since it is not used to direct sun, I would ease it into sunlight by moving it where it will get a couple of hours in the morning, then after three days four hours, repeat once more for six hours and then as much as possible until the early summer temps start to require shade much of the day. I think this will increase your flowering. But I could be wrong--gardenias are experimental here. Might want to put aluminum foil shiny side out around the container to keep the roots cool and mulch that pot with bark, leaves or wood chips.

Things that might help are the acid fertilizer mentioned above (though I sadly think MirAcid is now discontinued and some other acid fertilizer is in its place).

Putting a clear plastic bag over the plant as a greenhouse to increase humidity might help flower bloom. Definitely don't do this in direct sunlight or you will likely cook the plant. Try to keep the plastic off of the plant so water won't promote fungi/bacterial rot where it touches.

My father raised gardenias in Phoenix outside. I never realized what an accomplishment that was. Food irrigated property so pH was likely 7.6 so that helped. Kept it trimmed to 3 feet in height. Southern and western shade. So the upper part was exposed all the time, while the whole pant only got direct sun in the morning in the winter half. Had lovely flowers.

We have a big fish tank and I use the fish tank water to water the plant. So I guess the fish tank water adds some acid in the soil. But I am not totally sure about this. Yesterday I applied fertilizer ( osmocote plush) also.

Let's see whether my plant improves or not.

Fish tank water will definitely add some nitrogen.

I have a 3 year old gardenia in my back yard in the ground in a fairly shady spot and it's doing well with Espoma soil acidifier. Not many blooms, but I may move it someday to a sunnier spot. You really have to give it a lot of acidifier to keep it green (depends on your soil of course). I'm always a little worried about my patio because it's planted close and I don't know if acidifying the soil that close to it will cause damage to the cement.

I've tried to grow them a few times in containers, and they died around the end of may/early June when the temperatures got higher. I think I've learned a lot since then though. One of the big killers of container plants from what I've seen is using too big of a pot. I just barely increase the size of the pot when a plant grows out of them now and everything seems to do so much better.

I planted 2 gardenias in a south facing planter about a year ago. Partial shade. Fertilize with Arizona's Best All Purpose granular fertilizer and periodic fertilizing with Miracle Gro. They have done well and have lots of blossoms. Smell wonderful. Good addition with the BOPs. A little tropics in the desert!

Many years ago we had friends who lived just off 15th Avenue East of Christown. They had a massive bed of the large blooming gardenias planted in the ground on the north side the entire length of the garage with a narrow path and then huge olenders on the neighboring property. Bloomed like carzy and seemed to be protected from frost. Oviously loved that micro environment. She would bring bags and bags of blooms to square dances to share.

We have never been able to keep a gardenia alive in a pot or in the ground. Deep Sigh.

I don't have any advice, but I thought you might enjoy reading a gardenweb classic, the infamous Suicidal Gardenia post.

I'd recommend more sun, like others have suggested. In the winter, I keep mine out in FULL sun. Don't worry about frost. They can tolerate Dallas winters, so Phoenix is a piece of cake. During summer, I only let it have AM sun.

Unfortunately, Miracle Gro is NOT very acidifying (nor was Mir-Acid). There are professional fertilizer formulas (such as Peters Acid Special) that are truly acidifying. They contain sulfur in their formulations.

You can add some elemental sulfur to the soil, but that's a slow process b/c the bacteria need to break down the sulfur to sulfuric acid.

Hello, 2+ months ago I took 12 cuttings from a very old (35yrs) gardenia in pretty rough shape, but still producing flowers. Two survived. I was both amazed and disappointed. Unfortunately, I don't have a green thumb, but would very much like to do all I can to keep them alive and hopefully get them to thriving. I put them in Happy Frog potting soil and used rain water. pH is slightly below neutral. Very fine roots are starting to show on bottom of containers. Some leaves are paler in spots, almost mottled looking. I just can't find any straight answers as to what to do with them at this stage. I want to keep them in containers if/as long as I can. I have 2 4in clay glaze pots to put them in (they're 2 & 3 in tall). I have (organic) Happy Frog, Vigoro and Gardener's Gold potting soils. Salesman at nursery sold me Happy Frog acid loving 6-4-4 fertilizer and said I was good to go to pot up. This doesn't seem like it's all they need. Isn't there a difference between fetilizing and amending, as in changing the soil they live in? I really prefer not to use peat, but it is in everything. I am unsure how to make acidic soil, if that will be too much for them right now, how to avoid transplant shock, scared silly fertilizer will burn their thin, tender roots, nor what to do about mottling. I live in zone 9a/10a (depending on map). Oh, they have spent very little time in direct sun, much of it spent on a covered walkway. Thanks SO much!

I think your babies look good, really good. Congratulations on rooting them! I think your instincts are all good: eventually move them into containers (I like unglazed terracotta but it DOES need more water than glazed pots) in good quality potting mix. An occasional soak with some acid-loving plant fertilizer is all they'll need (other than protection from sun/heat/cold like you already mentioned). I think they look great and really just need to be moved up into slightly (not too much larger--that encourages rot in the excess soil where roots haven't reached yet) pots. All looks good to me! Keep us posted! Happy gardening!

Thanks much for your reply, grant_in_arizona! Was losing hope I'd get one since the thread hasn't been posted in a while.

So I went ahead and potted them in Happy Frog with HF 6-4-4 fertilizer using slightly less than package instructions. So far so good. Still concerned about the pH of soil. It didn't change much, but fingers crossed I can do right by them.

Oh, I've always used clay pots in my growing attempts. Thought these were a nice compromise.

Again, appreciate the help. And happy gardening to you!

Off to try my hand at a trough bed herb garden!